I had a chevy 350 in my old ranger. It worked great except the distributer was in the back of the motor so I had to cut out some firewall and even then if I ran over any thing to big the distributer would hit and break caps. But if you wanted a good 351 m to rebuild Im dropping a 460 in my 79 bronco. I will probably be selling the 351m for $250 or so in a couple of weeks.

I bet a 351M would be a mighty tight fit, then I have to make headers and such. It would be fun, though.
I'll probably stick with the 302. At this point, I want to keep it in the 12's. I'm not going to cage it or box the frame right now. It's going to look totally stock from the outside, even a little beat up and in primer. A poor man's truck!! Believe me, I fit the profile.

I found a company, Allstar Performance, that makes a complete conversion kit for the V8 Ranger. it comes with the mounts, oil pan, fuel pump, oil filter relocator, headers and radiator. It costs around $650, but it sounds like it might be worth it.

I got a few guys telling me I can buy the parts separately cheaper from other sources. The biggest expense will be the headers. I could even make the mounts if I had to.
But, I got laid off for a few months, so now I'm going to have to put this project on hold again. Good thing is, I can drive it if I have to since it's still got the 2.9/5-speed.

I wanted more cubes. I've run 351's before, and they make tons of torque. I could go with a stroker kit, but I didn't want to put a ton of $$ in the truck.
We got rid of the 383, so a Chevy implant is out of the picture. Who knows, I might run the 302 and see what it'll do.